Two things immediately come to mind. 1) Yes, that's pretty much the greatest bass and drum production in the history of recorded music. And 2) It occurs to me that I have no idea whether it's Stephen or Neil playing the lead guitar.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
How They Did It (An Occasional Series): Special Stop -- What's That Sound? Edition
From 1967, please behold in breathless the instrumental backing track for the Buffalo Springfield's epochal "For What It's Worth."
Two things immediately come to mind. 1) Yes, that's pretty much the greatest bass and drum production in the history of recorded music. And 2) It occurs to me that I have no idea whether it's Stephen or Neil playing the lead guitar.
Two things immediately come to mind. 1) Yes, that's pretty much the greatest bass and drum production in the history of recorded music. And 2) It occurs to me that I have no idea whether it's Stephen or Neil playing the lead guitar.
When they mimed it in some video I saw the other day (Beat Club, I think) Young was sort of playing the lead.
ReplyDeleteNeil was a big fan of tremolo, so I'm guessing it's him.
ReplyDeleteProbably Neil -- even then, Stephen was much more melodic in his approach, and Neil the one who went for the jagged angular almost dissonant attack you can hear here.
ReplyDeletesteve, I don't know where you're finding these backing tracks, but they're fantastic.
Young plays the harmonincs Stills ONLY plays acoustic guitar on this track.
ReplyDeleteSounds more like Neil. The acoustic riff is Stills all the way. I watched a clip or two and that's what he plays, and since he's singing over leads it must be Neil, who definitely loves tremelo, you can really hear it's him on"Hung Upside down" from "Again".
ReplyDeleteGummo: Most of the instrumental tracks I find are grabbed from the internet and I believe many of Steve's finds are also from there.
ReplyDelete"All Hail The Intertubes"!!! The great liberator of rare R&R.
Capt. Al
Geez --- I remember seeing them do this on tv (Bandstand?) in 1967 and having my tiny mind blown. Of course, I (and many others, I think) thought the song was about something other than what it was about. Although, I guess, ultimately it was about what we thought it was about ---
ReplyDeleteOh, never mind. :-)
One of the clips has their road manager, who can't play bass, standing with his back to the camera as the band lip synchs. Bruce Palmer had been busted for pot and deported.
ReplyDeleteI think Stills recorded this on his own, without any of the band.
ReplyDeletesorry, research shows I was wrong
ReplyDelete(but so young, and so terribly in love)
details here:
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=vIdR--aAoAsC&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q&f=false
Great stuff Stevie. My favorite cut from this bunch is "Bluebird" - the long version (what can be found on Youtube).
ReplyDeleteStills played most of the instruments on CSN.
ReplyDelete